How to correctly use telescope accessories

hello welcome to my channel small uptakes my name is jason now accessories for uh telescopes can be a little bit confusing at times uh for the new astronomer um you know what eye pieces do you use to look at the planets for which i appreciate look at the deep sky objects do you need a filter do you need a barlow lens so you know and the thing is when these uh accessories come with those telescopes there's never really any instructions on how to use them you buy a filter and it's just comes and uh or a barlow lens and it just arrives and there's no instructions whatsoever um you know it's as though manufactured telescope manufacturers think we instantly know it all so uh what i'm going to do in this video is i just put together and it's important to to use these accessories that you get correctly because if you start using them incorrectly you're not going to get the best out of out of your telescope and its accessories now the most common accessories that come with a telescope these days entry-level telescopes like these is you may get a couple of eyepieces two eyepieces sometimes it's one but usually two eyepieces um it may also have been provided with a barlow lens and maybe even a filter a moon filter now it's important that you use these accessories to help you not hinder you and if you use them in the wrong combination and the wrong uh using the wrong tool for the pro for the wrong job then you know it's like i said it's going to hinder you so let's start off with different targets common targets are what you're going to be observing when you get your new telescope and probably the first one is going to be the moon we all point as telescope at the moon when you first buy a telescope first thing you point out and um and and rightly so it's an amazing target to observe now the great thing about the moon is you can't really go wrong um you can really play around with all the different accessories that's been provided with your telescope you can play around with your barlows and different combinations of eyepieces and even the filter um purely because like i say it's big it's bright and it's forgiving so you really can start playing around and boosting the magnification up using you know high-powered um eyepieces and things like that but i always say just have a play with high magnification because every seasoned astronomer you'll find much much prefers using low to medium power when you're out observation it's a big misconception that astronomy and the telescopes is all about power and magnification it's not um the eyepieces are actually what is giving you the magnification it's not the telescope again another misconception that your telescope is the one that's magnifying things it's not it's your eyepiece a telescope's job is to gather light so uh the the larger the telescope the more light this for instance this is going to get a lot more gather a lot more light than this one will and uh more light means a brighter image and uh as astro astronomers we uh we are always hungry for more more light this is why astronomers always want bigger and bigger telescopes basically so the moon lovely and forgiving we can really have a play and go to town on the moon so what about the planets well the planets is one of those targets where you're going to need quite a lot of magnification and this is where your barlow lens is definitely going to come in handy especially if you've got a small telescope such as this which is only a 400 millimeter focal length now remember the longer the focal length the more magnification the telescope is actually going to provide um so putting uh a two times barlow excuse me say in this telescope is going to increase the you know make the focal length twice as long so it's going to be an 800 going to be a lot better for observing the planets um now if you have something from 650 to above in focal length um 650 millimeters that is excuse me then i would recommend getting a decent quality um higher powered eyepiece maybe upgrade the your existing i always recommend upgrading um eyepieces that are provided with telescopes they're just there to get you going um they're not the best eyepieces in the world and they're not the the worst but it's always worth investing in a slightly better eyepiece and your higher powered eyepieces are always the ones to upgrade first you can guarantee they're the ones that's going to be of lower quality and for viewing the planets um i just like to just have um the eyepiece just a decent quality possible eyepiece or something like that plus just the name of an eyepiece it's an affordable first upgrade that you can just have a look for if you just do a search for plus live pieces uh there'll be a whole list of of different size plus live pieces that you can get now like i say if um but what you can do is use a barlow lens now be careful with barlow lenses i don't want to let's go go on about ball lenses too much i have done a full video on how to use a barlow lens i'll leave a link to that in the description um but certainly don't go for these high-powered barlows ones that provided with your telescope or usually only a two times barlow maybe a three times don't be uh thinking to get a five times barlow lens or anything like that uh they're usually aimed at astrophotography and things like that it's going to be too much for any telescope so just a two times barlow and again upgrading your existing one that's been provided with your telescope is going to be perfect uh for just you know don't don't go uh you don't have to pay really big prices um you know i'm not on about getting top at range stuff just just a little bit more you know 30 40 pounds 50 pounds for another barlow lens that's all you need to pay is going to dramatically improve your uh views of the planets so like i say keep the power you you have to have for the planets you want it nice and high the power but not too much never go too much never use a very high barlow high powered barlow lens with a high powered eyepiece remember the lower the number on the eyepiece the more power that eyepiece or magnification is going to give you so what about deep sky objects now these are where we really do need as much light as we can possibly get so for visual work and this is all i'm going to be talking about visual work for viewing deep sky objects now remember no matter how big a telescope is usually a deep sky object is just a faint fuzzy smudge in the eyepiece okay don't be put off by these big um uh glorified pictures that you see on the internet they are exactly that the photographs they've been through photoshop and and the rest of it so in the eyepiece it's usually black and white and a little bit fuzzy but we need as much light as we possibly can get um now that all of course starts at the telescope uh the larger the telescope the more light you're going to get in and it also is important about the eyepiece and which eyepiece that you use for viewing deep sky and that's always going to be your lowest power or you're lower on the lower end power of um eyepieces uh you may think wait aren't they the are they the furthest away don't we need more power well no what we need is more light and that's the main key of or the most important thing that you're quickly going to learn um and find out when you're on your journey of this hobby is light is the key and it's not it's not all to do with power so a low powered eyepiece now you've only got to look at say a um a high-powered eyepiece there's a six millimeter plus light piece there and here's a 25 millimeter uh eyepiece and if we just look at the bottom of them of of of where the lights coming into it you can see straight away the difference in how much light can get in the high powered one and how much light can get it in the low powered one uh the 25 and and this is what i'm saying so you know using just a low powered eyepiece on its own is going to get them a maximum amount of light coming through the telescope so always low power you don't need your barlows or anything like that when you're looking at deep sky objects now just a little tip about finding deep sky objects which kind of contradicts what i've just said but it's just a little tip for if you can't find what you're looking for and that is if you're scouting around and you're saying i still can't find the target i'm looking for maybe increase the power just a little bit um if you're using a 25 millimeter eyepiece maybe put your 10 millimeter eyepiece in there what this is going to do it's going to narrow the field of view and it's going to darken the background and it's going to make the contrast of the two of the deep sky objects and the darker back background and it'll really pop out more a lot more than just what with your um your lower powered eye pieces so that's just something to try but i always quickly you know swap back to your low power and that's where you're going to get your best views for deep sky objects so what about filters now like i say the most common filter to provide be provided with telescopes is a moon filter and to be honest it's the most important one of them all for visual astronomy um i i always say anything above 60 millimeters and anything above four inches well this is actually five inches but anything above four inches is essential that you get a moon filter now all a moon filter is is is basically like wearing a pair of sunglasses it's going to cut down the glare from the moon um if you haven't had chance to have a look at the moon or you already have looked at the moon you may have noticed how dazzling it is and it can be quite dazzling in the eye in the eyepiece um and this is it's no good for for you know your nice dark adapted eyes and uh you may have found that once you've taken taking your eye away from the eyepiece you've got that blue ball flashing you know that goes off that you get from flash cameras so a moon filter though is something i would highly recommend um as if you haven't got one get yourself one board you can pick a decent mil boom filter up for as little as 10 pounds um or whatever your country's equivalent is um a little dodge to this that you can try i wouldn't recommend it all the time i'd just get yourself a moon filter but i did mention it's like wearing sunglasses well if you've got a eyepiece with a good eye relief that means you can you know um eyeglass wearers will know what i'm talking about here where you can't quite get up to the eyepiece on short eye reliefs but if it's got a decent eye relief so you don't have to get your eye right up to the eyepiece you can wear sunglasses for viewing the moon a an old friend of mine he used to have a specially lunar pair of sunglasses where he just popped one of the lenses out i just used to wear these sunglasses there were those little round ones you know those john lennon sunglasses as i call them yeah and he just had one of those and he just used to use that as a moon filter because that's basically all a moon filter is it's it's just a a darkened piece of glass so um colored filters um again i don't want to go too much into this i have done a video more in depth video on color filters now um in a nutshell basically the not important and they are literally down to the eye of the beholder and uh some people love them some people hate them um i'm in the in between i use them very very occasionally uh colored filters are for um sometimes they can increase the contrast on planetary views and things like that um they're not important you don't need them if you haven't got them in your um accessories don't worry about it worry about a moon filter get yourself a moon filter the rest of the filters that you've probably heard about like um uv filters and light pollution filters these are usually aimed for astrophotography and those sort of filters are important when it comes to astrophotography but for visual not so much um again i when i look at the art in an eyepiece i like to see the natural beauty of what i'm looking at the natural colors um again um when it comes to moon filters go for a more bluey colored filter i don't like looking at a green moon or you know some some of these filters come in green for the moon so with the blue filter and just get yourself the right one uh another little quick tip uh the larger the your telescope the darker the filler filter needs to be okay so if you've just got a small refractor like this you want quite a light uh transparent uh filter for for the moon but like i said go for the blue one and you don't really notice it as much once you're observing for quite a while that sort of blue tinge you kind of forget about it um but that's about it for filters like i say some people say i don't like using them i can't see any difference it makes it worse when i use a filter like i say usually for visual it's for planets and things like that the colored filters but like i say there's nothing wrong with you grabbing a bunch and giving them a whirl you never know you might like them so as you can see accessories for telescopes are not complicated it's just that the they don't come with instructions and so there's no way of actually knowing unless somebody tells you how to use off of them but my biggest point of advice would be less is more when it comes to power always always over power slash magnification is what i mean by when i say power um less is always more and you are always going to get your best views when it's just the telescope and a good quality eyepiece with nothing in between well i think that about covers everything with the accessories that you get with entry-level telescopes now if there's anything i may have forgot or if you've got any questions please leave them in the in the comments below um i always always read the comments i always try and get back to you some some of you do slip the net for some reason and i see your comment about three weeks later but usually i do get uh back to every single one of you uh so if you've got a question just like i say leave it in the comments below well that about wraps up another video thank you so much for watching if you've watched this far uh don't forget to like share subscribe all the rest of it i do do regular uploads for the new astronomer in the meantime take good care of yourselves and i will see you on the next one bye for now [Music]

Channel: Small Optics

Views: 79,428

Keywords: Astronomy, astronomy for beginneres, astronomy for dummies, telescopes, barlow lens, eyepiece, the night sky, stargazing, the moon, the planets, the sky at night, telescope filters

Id: P6964Okhfkk

Length: 17min 13sec (1033 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2022